Reaction'In good shape' - Hendo and Robbo assess win over Man City

The Reds captain got his hands on the trophy for the first time on Saturday after a 3-1 victory against Manchester City at King Power Stadium.

Trent Alexander-Arnold put Jürgen Klopp’s side in front with a curling finish and though Julian Alvarez equalised in the second half, Mohamed Salah converted a penalty and substitute Darwin Nunez sealed it with a stoppage-time header.

Henderson and Andy Robertson reflected on the win with Liverpoolfc.com post-match, explaining the intensity of the clash with City and how the result provides a boost ahead of next weekend’s league opener at Fulham.

Jordan Henderson

On providing another chance for players and fans to celebrate…

Another great day for the fans and for us as players. We hadn’t won this trophy yet so it’s nice to do that, but after today we know we are going to enjoy it, but tomorrow we need to focus on next week, the start of the season and be prepared for that. We’ve got another game tomorrow, some of the lads will play in that, then we’ve got to prepare for Fulham away, which will be a tough test, and the season gets under way so we need to be ready.

• Watch Liverpool's pre-season clash with RC Strasbourg Alsace today live on LFCTV GO (T&Cs apply) - subscribe at liverpoolfc.com/watch and get 30 per cent off an annual subscription using the code 30GO22

On the Reds’ performance on the day…

I thought it was a good game. I thought there were a lot of positives throughout the game. We probably should have gone 2-0 up and killed the game off but then they scored to come back into it, but [we showed] great mentality and great character to keep going and score another two goals, so overall we’ve got to be pleased with the performance.

It’s obviously the first proper game back so it was going to be intense; City are a fantastic team. So you’ve got to work hard for it and we sure did work hard for the result, but we look in good shape and, like I said, there is a lot of positives to take from the game.

On the goals for Alexander-Arnold, Nunez and Salah…

I thought [Nunez] was really good when he came on, putting himself about and always looked a threat. Thankfully he got a goal as well so that will do his confidence the world of good.

It was a fantastic goal by Trent, the build-up was good before [and] a great finish. Obviously Mo’s penalty was fantastically executed as well so some really good moments, good goals in the game and overall I thought we deserved to win.

Andy Robertson

On the team getting their hands on silverware again…

It’s nice. Obviously we’ve played in this twice before and failed on penalties twice, so it’s nice to kind of flip that and get the medal and win the trophy, of course it is. It’s obviously the first game of the season and you only get here by being successful and a really tough game against a top opposition, but it’s always nice to win it. This is the first taste for us so hopefully it’s not the last trophy we win this season.

On it being a ‘frenetic’ 90 minutes against City…

Yeah, it was tough. It’s been a short pre-season, a lot of us have only got 45 minutes in our legs, that’s the maximum we’ve played, some have played 60 and things like that, so when it got to 60 to 65 there was a lot of tired legs and then they went and equalised. It showed a lot of character, we brought on fresh legs. Darwin was brilliant when he came on, Fabio, Harvey, Curtis, Naby, Millie, we made all six subs and I thought they all made a difference and gave us that bit of pace and a bit of composure when we were getting a bit tired. It was a full squad effort today. We flew straight from Austria, it has been a tough 10 days and now the real fun starts.

On Nunez winning the penalty and scoring the clinching third goal…

He also had the chance [before that] but, to be honest, I don’t think he did much wrong, I just thought it was a magnificent save by the ’keeper. A great start for him. He’s going to need time, he’s still young and we will be patient with him but what a 30 minutes he had. To get his first goal makes a huge difference and I’m sure he will be delighted with his half an hour’s work. It just means that the first goal is away, all that pressure has gone and hopefully there’s many more to come.